Sunday, June 14, 2009

One of These Things...

by Tawny

Did you ever watch Sesame Street? If so, do you recall that little song, One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other? There was always a selection of somethings and given that the show targeted preschoolers, the something that didn't belong usually stood out pretty easily. For instance, Foanna's Tempt The Devil, Madame's The Dangerous Duke and my own Going Down Hard... They are all Bandita books, so that gives them the common ground. But Fo and Christine's books are both historicals and both are single title. Then there's mine- categoryand contemporary. One of these things is not like the other, right? And yet, they are all romances, all well written (well, I think so *g*) and all Bandita books.

Are you humming the song yet?

What put this in my mind was that I'm moving and to sell my house, I have to paint all my walls a neutral shade of vanilla. I have to remove all photos and personal items and create a blank slate to welcome potential buyers. I totally understand this in theory, I undestand why I need to lose the purple dining room and tortoiseshell hallway. I get that my framed bookcovers might not resonate with certain people and that they'd be a possible distraction from letting them imagine themselves living in the house. And honestly, I wouldn't want family pictures and photos of my kids on display for strangers anyway. So good girl that I am (don't laugh!) I have painted and packed and stored all the personality away in my house. And sighed.

Then yesterday my brother stopped by. Now, I hear quite often how alike my brother and I am. We look alike (if you've ever seen my cartoon avatar, he jokes that he drew a picture of himself with longer hair - really, we look that much alike). We have the same basic personality traits -smart alek, opinionated and a smidge neurotic. He's a graphic artist, I'm a writer. We both love to express ourselves. The list goes on and on. So he comes in, looks around at my neutral home and claimed for the first time ever- "Wow, the place looks great. I love it."

I almost hit him. But it really drove the point home that as much as we're alike, we're still vastly different. He likes neutral. He thrives on white walls and black furniture with glass and chrome accents. I live for color, plants and wood. People are always surprised to see how completely opposite we are in the home we surround ourselves with.

One of these things is not like the other...

and that is definitely a good thing.

How about you? Is there someone you're so much alike - a family member or friend -that you're usually compared to, and yet in some vital way you're completely different? Does it surprise you? And just out of curiousity - are you a color or neutral wall kind of person?

69 comments:

pjpuppymom said...

Am I a GR kind of person?

pjpuppymom said...

I am! I am! Good thing too. I need a helping hand around here after imbibing a few too many peach daiquiris yesterday. :)

Tawny, I feel your house painting pain. I'm trying to sell my house too and it about broke my heart to paint the walls a neutral color and pack away all my photos and accessories. I adored my cinnamon stick kitchen and my gulfstream bathroom and all the other beautiful colors throughout the house. I loved seeing the smiling faces of the people most important to me as I walked from room to room. Sigh. Intellectually, I understand the need to do all that but it sure isn't easy!

My niece and I are alike in many ways (her parents are always telling me that she's just like me). Our similarities probably come from her spending so much time with us during Christmas and summer vacations as she was growing up. I'm so darn proud of the woman she's become that it thrills me to have someone say she's like me. While I'm very close to all of my brothers, we are not that much alike. Maybe that comes from being the oldest and only girl.

Good luck with your house, Tawny. I hope it sells quickly. Are you staying in the same area?

Helen said...

Congrats on the GR PJ I know you both will have a great day although if anyone comes to look at the house you may need to hide him somewhere

Tawny what a great post I have always been told how much I look like one of my sisters but apart from that we are very different Janelle is single doesn't like to read and watches lots of TV where I am totally the opposite she lives with one of my other sisters and when she drops around she always takes some of my books back for Linda to read and you should see the faces she pulls and then tells me how much like our Mum I am.

As for colours here in my house the walls are all light grey and the wood dark grey with mostly dark furniture although when the kids were younger they all had different coloured bedrooms till I changed them all to grey it was cheaper and easier and I really like it.

Have Fun
Helen

Christine Wells said...

Hi Tawny! What great company for the Duke. I'm so flattered, thank you!

Oh, I had to laugh at your brother's reaction to the denuded walls. I'd say that was the typical reaction of a man, except that he obviously has a firm sense of his own style, rather than a lack of any sense at all:)

I think a lot of people say I'm like my mother, whereas I can see many, many differences! My mother has a lot more patience and is far more self-sacrficing than I will ever be! But people say we sound the same on the phone and I noticed when I watched the television segment where I was interviewed recently, I have a lot of the same mannerisms. It was an eye-opener!

Hey, PJ!! Congrats on the rooster. Is that your first time?

Terry Odell said...

Just got finished with the 'neutralize your house' to put it on the market. I feel like I'm living somewhere else.

Pissenlit said...

Ha! That song was stuck in my head this morning because I recently had to explain it to someone who didn't get my reference to it.

The only time anyone has ever said I'm so much like someone is when my mother gets angry with me and she says I'm like my father. *snort* My best friend and I are sort of the opposite of that. We're very different, so much so that once, someone who knew her and just met me went and asked her if it was mutual after I'd told him we were best friends. The thing is, my best friend and I happen to think alike which some friends realised during one Christmas party where we partnered up during a game and won easily. Unfortunately, we were banned from ever being partners again in future Christmas parties there.

Though I have absolutely nothing against colour(I happen to love many of them...ha!), my style is more in line with your brother's though I do like a bit of wood. Your brother's a graphic artist? I majored in visual arts back in university. Wonder if there's anything to that. :)

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Hey PJ, you ARE!! :> Congrats on the GR. Have fun with him today.

Tawny, I was LOL about your post and the "plain vanilla" adventure you're going through. I'm a color girl, allllllll the way. My office is a amber, my bedroom moss green with a ruby accent wall. My foyer is pumpkin. Yep. Color all the way. Yet, I do understand the clean slate thing. My sister and I are a lot alike, and yet...not. We sound exactly alike, we used to even fool our parents. We gesture alike, we laugh alike. In a lot of things we agree. People even say we look like one another.

Now, that's when you're actually LOOKING at us. "On paper" so to speak, we look nothing alike. She's four inches shorter than I am, she has brilliant red hair, chocolate eyes, and a red-head's skin and temperment. Ya'll know what I look like so...Yeah. Alike, and yet somehow different. Ha!

BTW, one of the greatest compliments I ever received was to be mistaken for KJ, so there, two blonde Banditas, about the same height. Yeah, I was totally flattered!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Oh, and Mme? In my home community, everyone and I mean EVERYone knows who I am. Not who I am in the sense of Jeanne Adams, author, but in terms of "Oh, you're Annie's daughter! Lookit how much you look like your Mama!"

Grins. Again, four inches taller than she was, bigger boned, etc. She had Nordic blonde hair and navy blue eyes. Me? I'm more toward that honey shade and I have green eyes.

Doesn't matter. I'm "Annie's Girl" all the way. Genetics RULES that one! Hahah!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

By the way, everyone in the US, HAPPY FLAG DAY!

It's a little celebrated holiday, but it's also my son's birthday, so, I celebrate! Ha!

Gillian Layne said...

First of all Tawny, Going Down Hard ROCKED! Loved that "fantasy" scene that Reece doesn't realize is a fantasy...anyhoo, ladies, if you haven't, you must read this book!

The whole blank slate thing really strips a home down to just a house, doesn't it? Maybe it's a good thing, a way to cut the ties. I'm a neutral wall gal in many rooms because my furniture is such a mismash of hand me downs that it seems to work better that way. But DH let my girls go to the paint store with him and pick out any color they wanted to paint their rooms (within reason--no black walls for me!) and they turned out beautifully.

Every time one of my girls gets her back up or says "I don't care if they're the teacher, they weren't right and I told them so!" I see my Dad. Highly entertaining. :)

Gillian Layne said...

Oh, and congrats PJ--and send a couple of those peach daiquiris this way, won't ya? Yummy!!

Kirsten said...

Hi Tawny! What a fun blog -- I love to see people's houses. I feel like it's such a window into their soul -- and they're all different. It's actually pretty remarkable when you think about how much individuality we express in our homes.

I like colors -- but soft colors. Sage green, latte, blue-grey, light purple...something that gives you the warm feeling of the color, but doesn't jump out at you. Remember Martha Stewart's chicken egg colors? Those are my favorites.

As for someone I'm similar to -- the only person who comes to mind is my sister, but we've really got very little in common. Every now and then I giggle because I realize I'm making an argument like her (she was an attorney as well, though she quit practice to stay home with her babies), but generally, we're very different.

Actually, the person I think I have most in common with these days is my husband! We are definitely doing the marital blend. We have a tendency to finish each other's sentences, and I noticed the other day that we engaged a neighbor in conversation on EXACTLY the same topics. Must be excrutiating to have to hang out with us! :-)

Kirsten said...

Gillian, I heartily agree. Tawny is amazing, isn't she? I count the days till her next books are released.

Kirsten said...

Christine, I think we all become our mothers. LOL. Whether we like it or not!

Joan said...

PJ, that's a shame as Ricco was going to send Liam with the 2 gallons of left over peach daiquiris today...

Tawny, interesting post!

I read it then looked at my house.

I'm a combination I think. Some of my rooms are more neutral (cream, tan) but even these colors have invocative names. The cream color down one side of my kitchen down my hallway is called "Innocence".

"Follow the "Hall of Innocence" :-)

The tan color in my living room? Baked Scone. It really pops now with my new carpet, a medium mocha.

The other side of my kitchen is a medium hunter green which I ADORE...even though currently there is big white splotch on it from wall repair.

Bathroom is medium purple, bedroom honeydew green and extra bedroom a pink/purple called "Sparkle"

And in a complete departure from my usual scheme my office is a medium gold.

My goal this year is to decorate my walls more...which would be a huge shift from the past 18 years I've lived here. Whatever I put up has to reflect ME....

I can't think of anybody I've been told I'm like....my Mom and I shared a lot of attributes but other than that...I guess I'm one of a kind.

Good luck on selling your house!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Kirsten, your sister is a lawyer too? Oh, wow. Two in one family...there's a joke there somewhere, but I'm not fising for it..nope. Not. Gonna. SNORK!

I love the soft colors too, despite come of my aforementioned color choices. It's fun to have those warm, soft tones too. I did that in the bathrooms. :>

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

As to the, "we all turn into our mothers in some ways" thing...yeah, we do.

Nancy said...

PJ, congrats on grabbing the GR! I do hope you will put him to work.

I feel for you and Tawny on the packing and neutralizing. We considered selling our house at one point, and the realtor walked into the living room, looked at the floor-to-ceiling bookcases the dh spent our first married Christmas vacation building, and said, "Y'all gonna have to to do something with all these books. Buyers don't like books."

So buyers are mutants?

That was our first reaction, but I'm sure his comment goes back to people's ability to imagine themselves in the space, as we did with the houses we looked at.

Tawny, I don't have a friend or relative I'm that much like. I'm definitely a color person. Maybe it's because I lived in apartments for so long, with eggshell walls and, maybe, wallpaper or color in the bathroom.

All the walls in our house were cream when the dh bought it (pre me). Over the years, as we fixed it up, we added color. Some of that color needs to be redone now, but we're not feeling the love for that project. Sooner or later, though, we'll have to get to it.

Nancy said...

Helen, we have a gray bedroom. It used to be our guest room until the boy moved into it, and we originally did the walls gray and the trim rose (no, the dh didn't pick those colors *g*). The boy, however, had objections to rose, so the trim became dark green.

Gray is very versatile.

Nancy said...

Terry, isn't it funny how having your stuff around you (or not having it) affects the feel of a place? I hope your house and PJ's will sell soon.

Nancy said...

Gillian wrote: The whole blank slate thing really strips a home down to just a house, doesn't it? Maybe it's a good thing, a way to cut the ties.

That's an interesting point. I don't drive down the street where I grew up because the people who bought my folks' house made a lot of changes. I don't want to see it like that. I'd rather remember it the way it was when we lived there.

Maybe taking the personality out of a place makes it easier to shut the door on that part of one's life. My parents are gone. Photographs and memories are all I have left of those years, and I don't want the memories disturbed.

Louisa Cornell said...

Yay PJ !! Good luck getting the GR to do any REAL work for you!

My sympathies, Tawny. I am SO glad I am not looking to move until they move me in a pine box. I am a color and character girl all the way. I have floors painted black, walls painted ivory with lavender roses stenciled on them. My hall bathroom has textured paint on the floor to make it look like sand because the whole room is like walking into the ocean.

My walls have all sorts of photos from my music career, my family history and all of my pets that have gone on before me. My writing studio is covered with framed autographed coverflats, my contest certificates and photos of me with lots of authors.

Many people say I look a lot like my Mom, although believe it or not she is shorter than I am! We are very much alike which is the reason after my brothers persuaded me to move in with Mom because she "needed" me, we only lasted two years before we both agreed I needed to move out because we were going to kill each other. We're both independent, stubborn, bossy, and set in our ways since our husband's died.

I have more in common with the older of my two younger brothers. We are both singers and musicians. We are both voracious readers and like much of the same music - at least when it comes to the more contemporary stuff. My youngest brother is very different from us.

jo robertson said...

Great post, Tawny, and YES, now I can't get that danged song out of my head LOL.

PJ, you most definitely ARE a GR kind of person and you've proved it by snagging him today.

This reminds me of the time I let my extremely creative daughter paint her bedroom black, with white and red trim -- hey, it was the 90's! She still talks about that. It took forever of course to paint over the black. I like my walls fairly neutral with the accents in wallpaper or paintings that are very bright and splashy!

Tawny said...

YAY PJ on the quick rooster nabbing. And hugs on the house selling woes. I hear ya. I hope yours sells fast!!! Isn't it hard to feel at home when all the color and love is packed away? Thanks for the good luck wishes! I'm only moving a few miles, but it feels like tons more LOL.

Thats so cool that you and your niece are that close! That's so cool and sounds like her parents are glad, too.

Tawny said...

Helen :-) I love that your walls are all the same color - I'm noticing that with ours that way now, the space just seems bigger and to flow better (not that I'd give up my color, but I'm rethinking some things about it *g*)

Isn't that funny that you and your sister look so much alike yet aren't? My youngest is the spitting image of her sister when she was that age, but I don't think they could be any more different.

Tawny said...

;-) I considered it an honor to wedge myself in there with you and Fo, Christine!

and LOL - yes! My brother's sense of style is very strong and very adamant. Lucky for his wife, hers is similar.

What a wonderful compliment that you're like your mom. Your admiration for her comes across in your words, so you must feel great to see those similarities. I've heard that I'm a lot like my dad, but I'd have to work a LOT harder to do as much as he does. And to have as good an attitude LOL. But hey, they're our inspiration, right?

Tawny said...

Oh Terry, you have my total sympathy. It does feel like living somewhere else, doesn't it? Almost like a hotel or something. A nice, one *g* but still...

Tawny said...

Oooh, Jeanne - gorgeous colors! I'd love to see pictures :-)

You and your sister sound close, huh? Isn't it wild when you can even fool your parents? How about personality? You don't seem to have a temper, so that sounds different, but the rest??

and YES!!! Being mistaken for KJ would be such a compliment :-)

Tawny said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jeanne's Son!!!!

Fedora said...

Hi, Tawny! I totally am humming the song--drat you! ;) Anyway, many people have said how alike my sister and I look and sound--this isn't at all obvious to us, and I suppose as people get to know us better, they realize that she's the one who's actually really nice; I just appear that way ;)

And uh, I tend to be a neutral wall kind of person, but would like to be more of a color wall kind of person :D

Congrats on the GR, PJ!!

Beth Andrews said...

I'm so glad I got to see your house before it became neutral! It was just so comfy and warm and welcoming and so YOU *g* Now I can't wait to get my invite to your new home :-)

I love color but I also like the white walls in my kitchen. I have green accents and even have the saying Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often (with stars between each saying) in green so for me, the white works.

But I also have rooms with color such as the burgundy ceiling in my office, blue walls in my bathroom and Americana walls (tan, blue and white) in the stairwell.

And I can't remember being like someone so much that I'm compared to them. Although I do know you and I have a few similar traits
;-)

Estella said...

I am definitely a color person. White walls drive me crazy---they are so blah!

limecello said...

Congrats on the GR, PJ!

I think I'm more a neutral wall kind of person? Actually I can't think of a single place that doesn't have neutral walls. (A home.) Interesting.

As for people I'm like... no not really. :X I'm crazy in a good way ;) But there are a few people I apparently look like - well, this one girl. We don't think we look alike, but others do. It's quite odd.

Anna Campbell said...

PJ, I think the rooster might be getting some turtles today. Lucky rooster! Peach daiquiris? You lucky duck!

Tawny, that song's stuck in my mind now. I don't think the new Sesame Street has it - I've sung it to a few people and they have no idea what I'm on about. Something happening with increasing frequency these days as the ads and TV shows of my childhood fade into memory - or endless reruns on cable! Thanks for putting the cover up - a bit of Nathan and his sultry looks never goes astray, does it? By the way, I'm with Gillian on Going Down Hard. Hubba hubba.

I must say I like neutral colors in terms of paint. My flat in Sydney was a bright stark white and I loved it - it made me think I was in Greece. So clean and bright (hmm, now I'm channelling Edelweiss!). I love lots of pictures on the wall and with that and my books, neutrals definitely work best.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Tawny, interesting post and I feel your pain! My husband would live with cream colored walls, and for eight years in this house, I did too. However about 2 years ago I started redecorating, one room at a time.

The dining room is a yellow green, with green and cream striped curtains, a heavy classic dining room table with two leather chairs at the head and foot, and yellow cloth covered chairs for the other six. Modern artwork done by my daughter Lyndsey with two more pieces promised by my other daughter Alison. I call it family formal.

The attached foyer is gold to bring out the gold flecks in the tile in the floor, and my office is a seafoam blue with cream plantation shutters and trim.

Next on the list is my master bedroom...but first I have to save up the money for my painter Manuel to come do the work!!

Christie Kelley said...

Great post, Tawny!

Congrats on moving, I think :) I know how stressful a move is.

I do look a lot like my mother. It's rather scary to see pictures of her at my age. If you can erase the beehive, it's me. Although, I'm not terribly like her.

Now as far as walls: color, color, color! I hate neutral walls. And unless one of my clients has some awful color, I tell them to keep the color. Paint is the one thing most people can get past. For my real estate clients, the biggest issue is always, clutter. Clean out those closets and move the stuff into a storage unit for a couple of months.

Good luck with the house sale!

Tawny said...

Awwww, Gillian you rock!!! Thank you :-)

And you're so right! I keep thinking as I paint each wall that its like saying goodbye - one brushstroke at a time LOL. Its a definite way of cutting that attachment.

We've let our girls pick colors for their walls too - one wants pink, the other cream and red. Works for me! and LOL on seeing your dad in your girls -isn't that fun!!

Helen said...

This really great hearing about the colour schemes that people have I am learning a lot I am not a very good decorater.

Have Fun
Helen

Cassondra said...

Oh, Tawny, so sorry you're having to paint over all those gorgeous walls.

Okay, you're going to stick your tongues out at me, but I'm both.

It totally depends on the house, and I go through phases.

In the house we had before, it was a tiny little four-in-a-box cottage. I did it up with deep aztec red on two living room walls and continued that aztec red trim and hunter green trim through the house. Most walls were a pale shade because the trim was so powerful. It was a hunting cottage feel. Hey, what else can you do with your husband's hunting trophies on the walls? It was very eclectic and I loved it. Plus, the strong color added architectural interest to an otherwise very plain space. Everybody who came in was like, "oh, this is COOL!"

But now they say the same thing about this house, when it's actually cleaned up enough for them to see it.

Our house is 160 years old this year, and we have beadboard and real (cracked) plaster walls and ten-foot ceilings (also beadboard or plaster), and I'm doing the "white on white" thing. I have all white walls, with some black furniture and wood floors--Sofa is red. I may yet paint the foyer deep cherry red, I dunno. But for now it's white sponged with a soft beige.

I've fallen in love with the light I guess. Our house has lots of windows and there's just light everywhere and I love it. White and mirrors splashes that light all around everywhere. Something about the beadboard walls really works with the white (the walls and ceilings are alligatored--you know that kind of crackling that happens from a bad paint job and looks like alligator skin?---anyhow I painted with a paint that would not cover that up because I like the distressed look) and the old wood works with this scheme too. Even some of my wood floors are painted white.

Of course, right now we're moving stuff around and you can't see half the house for clutter, but I suppose that's not the point....

But we're not finished with the house yet, so who's to say what it'll end up? I admit, though, that I'm going through a "white background with powerful splashes of color mixed with black" phase.

Thank God there's paint. As I change, I can change it.

I don't know that there's anybody much like me on the planet. Nobody in my family anyhow. I'm too strange I guess.

Nicole's Book Musings said...

Hi Tawny!

My family always tells me if I wanted to know what I was like as a kid look at my younger cousin. Though of course there being a 12 year difference we have several differences, but I think it's ironic that she acted like me at her age.

I LOVE colors, specially purples and blues. Just plain white would too boring for me. My bedroom is painted a purple-redish color.

~Nicole S

Cassondra said...

You know, as I think about it, part of it is that I'm a freak for old things. Primitive furniture. I've learned that you can take white walls, wood floors, and shove an old rickety primitive piece in there right beside a crystal lamp and the white makes it all look good.

Hmmm. I think I just don't like anything "normal." :0/

More weirdness. Of course.

Tawny said...

Kirsten, I totally agree!!! Peoples houses are always fun to check out - and its always intriguing when the house doesn't quite match the expectation, huh?

Soft colors sound so soothing and restful :-) I'm a fan for sure. My family room (which I refuse to paint - call me a rebel) is a soft sage.

Thats so wild that you and your sister are both attorneys. and LOL on the marital blend. I'm betting your neighbors don't find it excruciating at all to hang out with you!!! And if they do - well, hey - move this way!!!

Tawny said...

Kirsten said: Gillian, I heartily agree. Tawny is amazing, isn't she? I count the days till her next books are released.
...

Okay, now I'm blushing!!!

thank you :-)

Tawny said...

Oooooh, JoanieT - I love the Hall of Innocence. I've never been down one myself *g* but I think its so evocative and cool!! It sounds like you've found some awesome color by their name and I hope you get your green wall all green again soon ;-)

I think a home reflecting you really rocks. I'm all about splashing my personality all over my walls LOL

Tawny said...

Jeanne said: As to the, "we all turn into our mothers in some ways" thing...yeah, we do. ...

Oh yeah, totally!!!

PinkPeony said...

Hi Tawny!

I've been agonizing over colors for a month now but I'm hung up on the kind of headboards and the color of the window treatments I want for our master bedroom and guest room. I think I'll end up making my own upholstered headboards (never done it before but I'm going to try!) in a neutral linen color so they sort of go with everything. I can't see spending $$$ on a headboard in the first place. The guest room will be a very pale, creamy custard color and our bedroom will be a soft sage green/gray. My office will be a pale blue (calming, right?), which almost looks white in bright light and the "curry" colored hallways will be painted a soft beige with a bright white semi-gloss on the ceiling moldings and baseboards. I've got a bunch of Pottery Barn paint chip books and books on color palettes and it's still so hard to decide on colors. Kirsten, I'm a big fan of Martha's egg colors too! Our bathrooms are vintage and have those crazy vintage tile colors..rose blush, orchid and a strange green, almost like "Clinique" green but not quite. The pink bathroom (pink sink, toilet and tub!) will be painted white but with a pinky tint and the green monster bathroom will be a custard yellow. Our bathroom downstairs has one of those fancy paint treatments (rust, burnt orange...truly awful) and it looks like a bathroom you'd find in a bordello...Our house is over 75 years old with plaster walls. I'm hiring a painting contractor because if I tried to do it myself, it would take forever.

I have things in common with my sister and my best friend and husband but I'm not really like any of them...too weird, I guess!

Good luck with painting and selling your house!
Jen

Tawny said...

Oh man, Nancy - if I saw a house with floor to ceiling bookcases, I'd make an offer then and there. I adore bookcases LOL.

We had so many 'not feeling it right now' projects that we've knocked out in the last two weeks. It almost makes me want to just stay where I'm at, it all looks so good.

Tawny said...

Oh wow, Louisa, now I'm wishing I could see pictures of everyone's awesome spaces. Your house sounds great, too.

LOL on only making it two years living with your mom. Thats a year and 11 months longer than I'd make ;-) I think sometimes its harder to live with people we're like than we're unlike, huh?

Louisa Cornell said...

The house is still a work in progress and it is actually a 14x80 foot mobile home sitting on five acres in the middle of nowhere, which suits me fine. When my brothers protested my moving out I told them "Either way you are going to have to come to Wetumpka to visit me. Either on my place in Wetumpka or at the women's prison there because if I live with that old woman one more week I am going to kill her!" Needless to say they helped me move! She and I get along GREAT now that we don't live together and we think the boys were IDIOTS for every suggesting it!

Tawny said...

Jo, splashy paintings definitely look better against a white wall. I'm not anti-white, I'm just, well, pro-color LOL. My brother's place is gorgeous with white walls. He had me technique them once - white on white LOL.

Tawny said...

LOL Fedora... sorry about the song, I've had it in my head for 2 days now.

And if you're not the nicest sister, your sister must be amazing...

Just sayin'....

Tawny said...

Beth :-)

I actually almost added an entire paragraph devoted to how alike we are. But then I realized most people already knew that *g*

I can't wait to see your house- it looks so cool on Skype ;-) And you know the invite is wide open... anyday, sweetie, any day you want.

Tawny said...

LOL Estella. Me too, but more in a "omg how do I keep them clean" kind of way ;-)

I have kids and 2 very large dogs... white is scary.

Tawny said...

Hey Lime! How intriguing - give your personality I'd have expected a lot of color and excitement.

I hear all the time how my daughters look like me -we all squint at each other, shake our heads and disagree. We just don't see it *g*

Tawny said...

AWww, Anna, you know I love your cover. Dude's hot ;-)

Your Greek themed flat sounds glorious. I'm all for anything that makes me think of Greece!!! I think we're the opposite, go figure ;-) I go with color on the walls and neutral furniture and lots of wood. I figure its alot cheaper to change the wall color than the furniture LOL. And I tend to change... a LOT.

Tawny said...

ooooh, Suz... pictures? Your rooms sound gorgeous. I think its so awesome that your art is family-provided, too!!

Tawny said...

Ooooh, decluttering between posts, Christie!!! That part I actually enjoy *g*

LOL on looking like your mother, sans beehive. Thats wild, huh? Genetics are a funny thing, and its almost like we get the personality or the look, but rarely both.

Tawny said...

You are not strange, Cassondra, you're uniquely wonderful :-)

Your house sounds glorious. I love the older homes and the white/black/red combo must look awesome. Again, I'm wanting pictures LOL. I'm all about the inspiration, you know?

Joan said...

Suz's house IS gorgeous Tawny, having had the privilage to sit in her beautiful office with Rocky the Wonder Dog on my feet....

Not AT my feet, ON my feet, LOL

Anonymous said...

Congrats PJ on getting that rooster!

I guess my older sister and I are a lot alike. The older we get the more we look a like in the face. She is about six inches taller then I am, I got left out in the height line, because they are all taller then me. I think our personalities are different though.

As far as color in my house I am a little of both. I like a little color to my rooms. I just painted the kitchen that is a cream color with a tint of yellow to it. It was called Autume Breeze. The computer room in our house is painted two walls a dark color and two walls a light color, its different. I used to put wallpaper borders up to add color, but I want do that no more they are to hard to get back off.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Thank you Joanie! I am doing the easy rooms. The bathrooms and kitchen haven't been updated since the house was built in 1972...but finances are keeping that retro feel going in them!!

As for Rocky, he does enjoy my office, and sleeps nearby, (not usually ON my feet like he was Joanie's) but today he's still wet from frolicking in the pool. :)

Suzanne Ferrell said...

As for color, Tawny, I did the guest bedroom in a neutral tan, but hubby thought it had a tint of green in it, and accused me of wanting all my rooms some color of green. Once I put the rust-red/blue/gold/brown/green/cream quilt on the bed, the rust red curtains up and some art work, he conceded the color was taupe!

Son moved back into the room and loves the color.

Tawny said...

Oooh, Nicole, shades of purple are always my favorite!
and that is so funny about you and your cousin. Its not like you were there influencing each other given the age difference, so you have to wonder what parent/ancestor that kind of thing came from, huh?

Tawny said...

Oh man, I'm getting color envy, Jen. Your house sounds amazing. I love vintage and the colors your picking sound just right. With that much space to paint, I'm with you - contractor all the way!!

Tawny said...

ROFL Louisa ;-)

I'm glad you were able to make your brothers understand the direness of the situation *g*

Tawny said...

AWww man, JoanieT, now I'm so jealous. You've sat in Suz's gorgeous house AND played with the dog?!?!

Tawny said...

LOL on the height difference, Virginia. I'm actually the tallest woman in my family, I tend to loom over everyone else like a big ole elephant sometimes (think tiny petite women, and then there's me...)

Your colors sound lovely. I hear you on the pain of removing wallpaper and borders. The house we just bought has them EVERYWHERE. I'm not looking forward to removing those suckers!

Tawny said...

Suz, I keep seeing hints of green in the Navajo White on all the walls. I think its an illusion... either that or hope LOL.

I'm glad you proved taupe was taupe, but I'd totally get the need for green in every room, too. I do love green!!!

monica said...

I totally know that song! And I feel your pain on the wall painting thing. If my brother said that I'd want to slap him up-side the head! I LOVE color and hope painting the house helps it sell so you can paint your next house colorful:)